


Questions of Faith

by Merfilly



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-10-15
Updated: 2009-10-15
Packaged: 2018-01-13 13:29:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1228147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Diana struggles with the fall of a friend, but her sister understands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Questions of Faith

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Isilweth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isilweth/gifts).



Diana had seen gods fall and rise again, but the day Superman had fallen, even she had held her breath a moment, sure that her friend, her fellow warrior, would rise again. It was but the way of things, when this modern age was so in need of heroes, that the mightiest of them all should not yet be taken from them. Surely the Fates could see the need for him strongly enough?

Only, things had grown far worse before they ever improved, with a rise of four claimants to the name 'Superman', and disaster striking at the world through the manipulations of one of them. However, more than the fall into Thanatos's hands of her friend, the shattering blow for Diana came in the making of a grave enemy out of a close friend.

In the confusion, as conflicted reports came to her attention, and then when the new Green Lantern appeared with more details of the grievous tale, Diana wanted to implicitly deny that Hal Jordan could ever turn on a friend. The bonds of camaraderie and dangers faced meant too much to her, to see him as the traitor, until she had no choice but to admit that yes, he had proven to be a mere man, corruptible to the core by power.

`~`~`~`~`

Donna looked up at the slight breeze, and saw her sister standing there, looking less than her divine self. A frown crossed the Titan's lips, before she rose, going to Diana and hugging her in unquestioning support. Diana would talk when she was ready; she had but to let it come in due time.

"It's been an eventful several weeks, and I had not seen you through much of it," Diana began, by way of explanation. Donna merely smiled softly at her, before pouring them both a glass of water.

"It has, at that. But we've weathered it, sister." Her eyes noted the furrow of the eyebrows, the downturn of the corners of the mouth, and knew that the weeks had weighed heavier on Diana. Of course the League had borne the brunt of this all along, from Doomsday's first attack, but why was it riding under the Warrior's skin so desperately that Donna could see it?

"Life is slowly returning to a less frantic pace," Diana agreed. "Kal is...finding himself." The return to life had not been without oddities, as it should be for any whom Hades allowed to leave.

"But something more troubles you." Donna settled on the couch at one end, hoping Diana would as well. Instead, the elder of the pair began to pace, looking at the photography on the walls, the awards Donna had won for her work, and the paintings that had been given to her by the boy called Jericho.

"How did you cope, sister?" Diana asked softly, touching the frame of one that showed the Tower and its grounds, each member of the team depicted somewhere in a typical pose or habit.

Now it was Donna who had to frown, wondering why Diana would bring up that tragedy...and then her eyes fell on one of Kyle's jackets slung across a chair, and it all fell together. She and the artist had not opened up much to each other, but the fact he was Green Lantern now was the only clue Donna really needed for the thrust of Diana's reaction.

"It was hard. In our case, maybe, it was easier than what you face. We can remember Joey, our friend, and know that he came back to himself in the end, at least for a moment." Donna rose and moved to go stand behind her sister, hugging her gently. "It wasn't really him that did it."

Diana sighed ever so softly in defeat. "From all we heard, it was Hal. From beginning to end, though Green Arrow is still in denial."

"Of course he is. Roy always said they were close." Donna looked at the painting, remembering her friend, trying to place her head around the idea of him having knowingly done what he had. It cut across her grain, but it let her glimpse the pain Diana was feeling, the loss of stability in the knowledge of such betrayal. "People, I have learned, do not cope with grief in anything approaching rationality," Donna offered her, as a starting place.

Diana turned, viewing the woman her sister had become, noting the lines of maturity. Donna had lost husband and children, friends, and comrades to death. She lived closer to mortality than even Diana tried to. Their divine nature was stamped in their blood, but Donna was human and mortal with the eyes of such.

"He was the strongest of us, in his resolve. If he could fall..."

"Any can. But the fall was not in him alone," Donna pointed out. "We learned. Joey could not have been claimed and made over if we had been as we were meant to be."

"How is that, sister?"

"It is not faith in the individual that makes us strong, Diana. It is faith in the whole. Your friend fell not because of his grief alone, but because there were none with him, to bolster and support him. This is how Joey's turning was missed until too late. Neither his mother, nor any of the team were close enough to see it."

Diana took a deep breath, weighing the Truth in the words. Between the War of the Gods, the Superman pretenders, and the general discord caused by so many events at once, it was true that Hal had been alone at his most vulnerable moment.

He was only mortal, but the lesson was there to see.

"Thank you, Donna." Diana gave her a genuine smile. "It helps, though it hurts."

"What lessons of the Fates comes without pain?"

"Truth, in every word of that," Diana agreed.


End file.
